Southpaw, Review: Loses on points

South is to left what north is to right, and paw stands for hand, in boxing parlance. So, a ‘southpaw’ is a boxer who takes a right side on stance, but leverages his left-hand to telling effect. In other sports, southpaw is often used to describe a person who is left-handed, as a left-handed batsman in the game of cricket. Southpaw, the film, derives its title from this terminology. In the film, the protagonist makes very little use of his left, and there is very little in the film that is right. 

In the Hindi, cult, super-hit, crime film Johnny Mera Naam, the hero and his brother, who love sparring with each other, are separated at a very young age, and grow up to serve on opposite sides of the law. Decades later, when they face-off and get into fisticuffs, one roars, “Here comes the left”, while the other launches, “Here comes the right.” These catch phrases jog their memories, and unite them against the bad guy who had killed their father. From Hollywood, Raging Bull and Rocky are acts hard to emulate. Inspired by their success, Indian actor-producer Mithun Chakraborty tried to don boxing gloves with Boxer, a film that got knocked out at the box-office. An earlier Boxer had Freestyle Wrestling legend, the late Dara Singh, in the title role, and did well for a B-grader, especially with some catchy music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. So what is Antoine Fuqua and Kurt Sutter’s 2015 take on the blood sport? Read on.

Billy ‘The Great’ Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the New York-based reigning World Junior Middleweight Champion, whose unorthodox stance, the so-called Southpaw, consists of a brutal, display of offensive fighting, fuelled by his own feelings of inadequacy and a desperate need for love, money and fame. With a beautiful wife Marianne (Rachel McAdams) and a sensitive and a loving daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence), in her pre-teens, home and financial security, Billy is on top, both in and out of the ring. After a fight that he wins but is badly bruised in, his wife suggests that he should consider the family’s future and retire while he is still at his peak. At a press conference and reception soon afterwards, he is taunted by another boxer, Miguel ‘Magic’ Escobar (Miguel Gomez), and a brawl breaks out, where a gun, belonging to Miguel’s brother, goes off, causing a fatal wound to Marianne. She dies a few minutes later, in his arms, and the event sends Billy into a downward spiral. No witnesses come forth to identify the man who shot her. Out to seek vengeance, he sets out to kill the guilty man, but takes pity on when he sees his wife and child, and spares him.

Addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs, Billy finds his daughter taken away by Child Protective Services, on a court order. His home and car repossessed to pay his bills, bankrupt Billy's fate is all but sealed, when, to his good fortune, a washed-up former boxer named Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) agrees to take the bereaved pugilist under his wing, so long as he agrees to his strict behavioural code and pays for his training by cleaning the gym every day. Now, as he works to regain custody of his daughter, an opportunity comes his way to make a professional comeback, thanks to his former agent and crooked promoter, Jordan Mains (50 Cent).

The film's screen-writer Kurt Sutter said the project was inspired by the rapper Eminem’s personal struggle--his love of his daughter when he had overcome all the insanity, the death of Proof (Eminem’s childhood friend and fellow rapper, who was shot and killed in 2006) and all the things he had been through. DreamWorks acquired the script from him in 2010, with Eminem eyed to play the lead role. Sutter is a father himself, and boxes five days a week, so was considered to be the right man on the right script. Eminem backed out weeks before beginning boxing training, citing his commitment to making the album, The Marshall Mathers LP. Without Eminem in the cast, DreamWorks left the project--and The Weinstein Company came aboard, in 2013. Harvey Weinstein’s choice for the new Billy was Jake. But the Jake of Nightcrawler had to train very hard to look like Southpaw’s Billy. He sure did. In retrospect, that is the one decision that saves Southpaw from sinking without a trace. Another could be casting a man called Forest Whitaker.

TV writer Kurt Sutter’s debut film script stutters all the way. Every possible cliché in the book is milked dry. Dialogue, that was apparently supposed to sound like profound philosophy, often teeters on the brink of being banal and instruction manual-like. An occasional line like, “When the bubble bursts, they will all run away, like roaches,” is not enough to salvage the largely contrived language employed. His obsession with spilled and vomitted blood, blood soaked cloth, sore, swollen eyes (and even a fake eye), and gore in general is …well, obsessive and excessive. It might have been palatable had there been a method in his madness. There isn’t. And there is no doctors or hospitals aywhere in sight, to ensure unabated flow of the life liquid.

Director Antoine Fuqua (Brooklyn's Finest, Olympus Has Fallen, The Equalizer) shot the film in real time, the boxing scenes comprising three-minute rounds, with a one-minute break. He also used an unbelievable number of cameras. Yet, what does stand out in his lighting and camera technique is the bedroom scene, with its attractive framing and lighting, and the slight jump cuts, mid-long shots to long shots, in narrow passages, the metaphor for the plight of the characters. And if you are wondering how he captured the blurry, odd-angle boxing-ring shots, they came from cameras mounted on the backs of Jake and Miguel. The producers call it “first-person boxing!”  But the audiences might well ask, “So what? Where’s the punch?”

Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow, Nightcrawler) struggles hard to save the film, without much luck. Billy’s angst is well conveyed, and the character does have several dimensions, in spite of being a pugilist. But don’t even think about comparing Nightcrawler to Southpaw. Canadian actress Rachel McAdams (The Time Traveler’s Wife, two Sherlock Holmes films, Midnight in Paris) has a brief part, and manages both, the bedroom scene and the dying scene, aptly. Unconventional in looks, with a pair of glasses to boot, Oona Laurence (stage actress, Tony Award winner, 12 going on 13, seen in the film Penny Dreadful) oozes confidence, in a poorly etched, melodramatic role.

It is almost criminal not to tap talent like Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, The Last King of Scotland), and that is what this film almost does. Whitaker’s deep, breathy, unclear articulation makes matters worse. To be fair, his character does bring some genuine humour into the proceedings, and he uses his honed art to pass off as a former boxer, without looking like one, and without possessing any obvious physical traits of one. It must be made obligatory to have all rappers’ dialogue sub-titled. Curtis James Jackson III, aka 50 Cent, is a good case in point. Victor Ortiz and Miguel Gomez are real life boxers, which makes what little acting they are called upon to deliver easier. Gomez, as the Colombian boxer Escobar, a surname that cannot but have been chosen because the notorious Escobar (died 1993) was one of Colombia’s biggest drug-lords, gets to shower some abuses at Gyllenhaal and looks menacing.

Southpaw reminds me of the old joke, wherein a critic was watching a play, seated right next to the playwright. As the play became increasingly unbearable to sit through, the critic tried to get up and leave. The author persuaded him to stay on, with the promise, "Wait. The punch is yet to come." When this happened for the third time, the critic retorted, "When the punch comes, give it to the director," and bolted towards the exit. Jokes apart, the film is not THAT bad. It's just about saved, from a self-goal, by the bell.

Duck it if you can. Take it on your chin, if you must.

Rating/5: **

Referees' points:

Southpaw: 2

WhatPaw?: 3

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2ebPxhoLs